Hardest kids' game show bonus round.

[castletonsnob]

What's the hardest kids' game show bonus round?



For me, it's the Temple Run in Legends of the Hidden Temple. There's a reason only 32 episodes out of 120 total had the team successfully getting the artifact out of the Temple. The ONLY bonus round that even comes close is the Map Round in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, at least if it was the Africa map.

[tirtefaa]

Jul 8, 2023 18:36:06 GMT -5 castletonsnob said:

The ONLY bonus round that even comes close is the Map Round in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, at least if it was the Africa map.

You could feel the air get sucked out of the room when they would get that map.

Honestly, the maps should have had time based on how difficult the map was. If you somehow got the North America map and you still lost, you should have never been on the show to begin with. I don't think I ever saw a kid win with the Africa map.

[Red Mage Riot]

That f***ing Temple Run. I never had any sympathy for the kids whose run died to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. If you can't put together a three piece puzzle, what the hell are you doing?

[Allie Kitsune]

Jul 8, 2023 18:56:04 GMT -5 Red Mage Riot said:

That f***ing Temple Run. I never had any sympathy for the kids whose run died to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. If you can't put together a three piece puzzle, what the hell are you doing?

The kid I felt most bad for on that show was the one who ended up with a guard stationed in the Cave of Size.

Like, that's THE VERY FIRST ROOM, WHY IS A GUARD THERE?

[Burst]

Speaking of Carmen Sandiego, Where in Time's bonus round still feels weirdly disjointed, like they couldn't come up with anything as cinematic as the map round. Plus for being essentially a game show for nerdy kids (versus the likes of Temple or Double Dare, let alone Guts), the "open the gate manually" for getting a question wrong was weirdly physical. All it took was someone getting a bad start and then you'd end up with a kid spending the better part of the time struggling to lift up a stonehenge rock.

Aside from that, I recall reading that Nick Arcade was far more difficult than it looked because the contestants were constantly having to look offstage at the monitors to see where the enemies or items actually were.

[Deleted]

It will always be IMO The Carmen Sandiego map..Africa like already said but also if you got Japan or anything around that vacinity.

[fw91]

Agro crag didn’t look like a piece of cake either.

[fg]

Jul 8, 2023 18:50:22 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Jul 8, 2023 18:36:06 GMT -5 castletonsnob said:

The ONLY bonus round that even comes close is the Map Round in Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, at least if it was the Africa map.

You could feel the air get sucked out of the room when they would get that map.

Honestly, the maps should have had time based on how difficult the map was. If you somehow got the North America map and you still lost, you should have never been on the show to begin with. I don't think I ever saw a kid win with the Africa map.

I remember one episode of Carmen Sandiego which in the start when they showed the kids in the crowd, the camera accidentally showed part of the map to which you can tell the continent that was going to be played in the bonus round thus providing the crowd with a spoiler. It’s like WWE telling you the result of the final match on Raw before the match was announced during the show.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Grab the coin Nadine, Grab the coin. Poor Nadine, she never could grab that coin.

[sfvega]

Not sure which one was physically the hardest, but the one that seemed to leave kids the most bewildered was probably Nick Arcade. I don't know if they just didn't have a very large screen off-set in which the competitors saw themselves or bad tech or if kids are just really bad at the marrying the new concept of what they're doing irl vs on the screen (because I'm sure there's a learning curve for new meteorologists for example), but a lot of them made a simple task seem almost impossible.

[Cyno]

Apparently the Silver Monkey statue pieces were not only poorly constructed, but it had to be perfectly aligned in order to trigger the success condition. Which is a really bad combination with kids who are under a lot of pressure and also on guard for Temple Guard jump scares (seriously, with some of the reactions of the kids it was clear they were scared shitless lol). The short-lived reboot at least had a better constructed material and was more reliably put together.

That Nick Arcade final round was probably way ahead of its time to the contestants' detriment. Awkwardly moving around a green screen with very primitive motion tracking tech. That'd probably be hell for an adult, much less kids.

[devilfish]

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

[Cyno]

Jul 8, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -5 devilfish said:

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

The DefunctTV episode about Legends of the Hidden Temple was really interesting. Kevin Perjurer has such an unfortunate last name for a guy who makes really interesting, well-researched, and factual documentaries about defunct rides, theme parks, and TV shows lol.

And honestly, an African political map STILL gives me issues. And I'm a 38 year old who considers himself something of a geography nerd. All the West African countries besides Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Nigeria are the hardest to keep track of. Asia could be pretty rough, too. Though I can't remember how up to date the show's European map was relative to the timeframe. The early 90's had a LOT of upheaval in Europe between the reunification of Germany, the breakups of the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and Balkanization.

I can't remember if Carmen Sandiego's North American map was just the Big 3 + Central America or if it had the Caribbean countries, too. If it was the latter, some of those tiny island nations could be rough to remember which is which outside of Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica. If the former, it had to be the easiest along with South America.

[Red Mage Riot]

Jul 8, 2023 21:38:45 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Jul 8, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -5 devilfish said:

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

The DefunctTV episode about Legends of the Hidden Temple was really interesting. Kevin Perjurer has such an unfortunate last name for a guy who makes really interesting, well-researched, and factual documentaries about defunct rides, theme parks, and TV shows lol.

And honestly, an African political map STILL gives me issues. And I'm a 38 year old who considers himself something of a geography nerd. All the West African countries besides Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Nigeria are the hardest to keep track of.

Also, wasn't Carmen Sandiego filmed during a period where the map of Africa had a tendency to change pretty frequently?

[Cyno]

Jul 8, 2023 21:40:42 GMT -5 Red Mage Riot said:

Jul 8, 2023 21:38:45 GMT -5 Cyno said:

The DefunctTV episode about Legends of the Hidden Temple was really interesting. Kevin Perjurer has such an unfortunate last name for a guy who makes really interesting, well-researched, and factual documentaries about defunct rides, theme parks, and TV shows lol.

And honestly, an African political map STILL gives me issues. And I'm a 38 year old who considers himself something of a geography nerd. All the West African countries besides Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Nigeria are the hardest to keep track of.

Also, wasn't Carmen Sandiego filmed during a period where the map of Africa had a tendency to change pretty frequently?

I think the map itself was relatively stable during that timeframe outside of Eritrea getting its independence from Ethiopia. Still a lot of post-colonial baggage with political turmoil, coups, and civil wars, but that didn't change the internationally recognized borders a whole lot.

[tirtefaa]

Jul 8, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -5 devilfish said:

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

I can't remember if it was just the 48 continental states, but you'd be insane not to write down Alaska or Hawaii, just because those are going to be pricier. I think initially it was the 48, but then expanded to the 50.

I would bet that most kids were probably coached by their parents on what state to write down, unless there was a true sentimental reason to go to somewhere cheap.

[Gunhaver]

Jul 8, 2023 20:59:03 GMT -5 Cyno said:

That Nick Arcade final round was probably way ahead of its time to the contestants' detriment. Awkwardly moving around a green screen with very primitive motion tracking tech. That'd probably be hell for an adult, much less kids.

I was thinking Nick Arcade, too. I can't imagine the confusion of hopping around in front of a green screen while watching yourself on a monitor to actually see whatever the hell is going on while the host shouts about dodging the wizard's fireball. It may have been cool visually, but even as a kid I thought it seemed overwhelming, too.

I think Guts is a little understated, too. I don't know if I as an adult have the core strength to survive the Aggro Crag. Some of the camera shots made it look a lot smaller than it really was. 

[castletonsnob]

Jul 8, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -5 devilfish said:

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

That's nothing. One kid beat the Africa map with NO WRONG ANSWERS.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZsmexlpI60

[fg]

Jul 8, 2023 21:56:10 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

Jul 8, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -5 devilfish said:

According to Kirk Fogg, the budget only allowed eight grand prize wins per season, thus why the Temple Run was insanely hard.

But...I have video evidence at least ONE gumshoe was able to conquer the Africa map.

youtu.be/JvC2-IaC_gI

I can't remember if it was just the 48 continental states, but you'd be insane not to write down Alaska or Hawaii, just because those are going to be pricier. I think initially it was the 48, but then expanded to the 50.

I would bet that most kids were probably coached by their parents on what state to write down, unless there was a true sentimental reason to go to somewhere cheap.

It was just the 48 states.

[Sigma: Current SRW Champ!]

Nick Arcade was the toughest. I don't think more than 10 people won it in its entire run.